Prosecutors allege Americans entered 'sham' marriages with foreigners to keep them in country

View full sizeMann Haddad (top) stands accused of engaging in a sham marriage to say in the U.S. His uncle, Amjad Sahavneh (bottom), is charged with setting up the deal.

MOBILE, Ala. — A Jordanian man accused of entering into a sham marriage so that he could remain in the U.S. is scheduled for trial here this month, along with his uncle, who federal prosecutors say arranged the deal.

In another ongoing case, prosecutors in Mobile allege that a Moldovan couple tried to stay in the U.S. by engaging in paper marriages with American friends who had divorced each other.

The 2 cases represent the only local prosecutions under the government’s marriage fraud statute since court records went electronic in the early 1990s.

U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown said that the cases are not the result of any specific crackdown. Rather, he said, federal agents have sharpened their focus on border security.

The marriage cases arose “tangentially” from those efforts, Brown said.

“It is a fraud under the law,” he said. “It is illegal to have a sham marriage to attain citizenship.”

Attorneys picked a jury last week for the trial, which begins May 16. The case involves the marriage in Mobile of Mann Majed Haddad, 40, and Valbory Caver.

Mobile County Probate Court records show that they wed in August 2007, 2 months after Haddad entered the country on a tourist visa. He applied for permanent residency based on the marriage the following January.

Defendants maintain innocence

Haddad’s lawyer, Dennis Knizley, said his client is innocent. He said that Haddad’s marriage lasted almost 3 years but broke down, as many do.

“It is absolutely a bona fide marriage,” he said. “There was no sham involved.”

Jurors probed on their views about immigration, tea party

MOBILE, Ala. — In addition to the standard questions designed to ensure that jurors can be fair and impartial, a judge last week asked potential jurors in a marriage fraud case about their views on religion, immigration — even the tea party movement.

The additional questions came at the request of Neil Hanley, who represents a man accused of arranging a sham marriage for his nephew so that the Jordanian man could stay in the country. Dennis Knizley, an attorney who represents the nephew, joined the request.

The defense lawyers and prosecutors picked the jury from a group of citizens summoned to court Monday.

The judge asked potential jurors if they belonged to an organization that seeks to limit legal immigration and whether they believe legal immigration into the United States should be considerably reduced or shut off.

Other questions included whether potential jurors have close friends or family members who have served in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan; whether they believe people from the Middle East should be able immigrate to America; whether they believe everyone from the Middle East is a Muslim; and whether they belong to a tea party organization.

Another question dealt with whether potential jurors if they believe naturalized citizens can be as patriotic as U.S.-born citizens. Sahavneh has lived in America for nearly 20 years and has become a citizen.

Asked why he included the tea party question, Hanley said, “Most tea party members are anti-immigration, Republican, conservative.”

Hanley said not a single person in the room answered yes to the tea party question, however.

-- Brendan Kirby

Prosecutors contend that Haddad’s uncle, Amjad Yacoub Sahavneh, 46, solicited Caver — an employee at a business he once owned — to marry his nephew. He and Haddad paid Caver from August 2007 until last December, according to the indictment.

The indictment accuses Sahavneh of having Caver sign various forms necessary for Haddad’s permanent residency. One of those was an affidavit in which she stated that she and Haddad lived at Sahavneh’s home in Mobile.

At one point, U.S. Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services officials questioned Haddad and Caver in Atlanta about the legitimacy of their union. Before that interview, the indictment alleges, Haddad coached Caver on how to describe details of the marriage.

Sahavneh also has denied wrongdoing. “ He’s not guilty — period,” said his lawyer, Neil Hanley. “It was a real marriage, and my client never paid this woman a dime. ... It was not an arranged marriage.”

Hanley said Sahavneh has lived in the U.S. for almost 20 years and is a naturalized citizen. He owns a retail store, Hanley said.

Prosecutors claim, however, that Sahavneh has previously attempted to arrange a sham marriage on behalf of a family member. They seek to introduce evidence that he offered to pay a woman in 2001 to marry a cousin of his.

In the other case, 4 people are accused of marriage fraud, alien harboring and conspiracy: Marin Limbas and Ludmila Bacioi Seal, Moldovans who were in the country on temporary work visas, and U.S. citizens Surina Christine Seal Limbas and Christopher K. Seal.

Knizley is also involved in this second case, serving as the lawyer for Christopher Seal. He and another lawyer, Dom Soto, suggested that guilty pleas are likely from their 2 clients.

“We don’t expect any serious challenge to the charges in that case,” Knizley said.

Court records show that Christopher Seal, 38, divorced Surina Seal, 33, in 2007. He then married Bacioi, 26, in March 2009.

Marin Limbas, 28, a co-worker of Christopher Seal in Baldwin County, married Seal’s ex-wife in December 2009.

Jail records listed the same Gulf Shores address for Marin Limbas and Ludmila Bacioi Seal when they were arrested this year.

Soto, who represents Surina Limbas, said that she confessed to investigators. He said he sympathized with the Moldovans, who he said simply were trying to make an honest living.

“It’s a shame,” he said. “It’s not like they were selling drugs or something.”

If convicted, the defendants in both cases face minimal sentences, perhaps even probation. The foreigners, though, almost certainly also would be deported.

“We’ve pled not guilty and currently, we are planning on proceeding with the case,” said Fred Helmsing Jr., Ludmila Seal’s lawyer.